Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus (CD)

Charles Mingus

2 Used

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Media Condition: Very Good CD

Comments: Digipak.This 1963 release was an odd bird, a Greatest Hits/retrospective-type affair with all new versions and titles for some of the bassist’s most memorable and enduring tracks. Only “Celia,” one of those engaging blues/ballad mixes Mingus excelled at, and “Freedom,” a spoken-word/ensemble piece, are new compositions here. Opener “II B.S.” revisits “Haitian Fight Song” from The Clown, trimming it by more than half in the process and increasing the power of its laser-guided tempo and tent-rival/speaking-in-tongues vibe; “Better Get Hit In Yo’ Soul” adds an “h” to the title and a different ending to the Mingus Ah Um track, but clocks in a minute shorter; “Theme for Lester Young” is “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” (also originally from Mingus Ah Um); “E’s Flat Ah’s Flat Too” from Blues & Roots is recast in a shorter, more aggressive light as “Hora Decubitus,” and omits the bassist’s hollers and moans; and “I X Love” reassembles the “Nouroog” section from “Open Letter to Duke” (also from Mingus Ah Um). Mingus also adds a gorgeous version of Ellington’s “Mood Indigo,” but his goal here seemed to be to tighten these compositions and recast them with a different – and perhaps his most accomplished -- band. This one included Booker Ervin and Eric Dolphy, whose rapid-fire and aggressive soloing suited these tighter compositions, and pianist Jaki Byard. (Byard and Dolphy would join the Mingus small ensembles that made a huge splash during their European tours in 1964.) But there are no slack musicians allowed on Mingus records, and everybody delivers here -- overlooked trumpeter Richard Williams especially deserves high marks here. The bassist’s ability to get an ensemble of gifted soloists to behave with one mind was always his strong suit, and in this respect Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus is indisputably one of the best examples of that.